Watercolor Journaling or Urban Sketching??

There are many terms used to describe the process of art journaling. For me there is a small distinction between watercolor journaling and urban sketching in that they are both done in a sketchbook or journal and both document the world around you. I was doing Watercolor Journaling years before the term Urban Sketching came into being when many of the sketches shown here where created. For me, watercolor journaling is the art of capturing the world around you in watercolors and includes your written observations on the pages of a journal.

To be a true Urban Sketch, in the purest sense, there should be visual indication of the location your sketch is capturing, a place that can be found on a map, as opposed to a sketch of, say, a vase of flowers or a scattering of nuts on a table, or a seashell drawn in your home or studio. Any and all media can be used, from the simple pencil to a digital drawing tablet and a stylus.

Many of the sketches on this page would be considered "urban sketches" and I probably should move them to the Urban Sketching page in this website, such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Denver Airport and the Italian scenes as well. At some point I will do that, but I wanted to help you understand, if there was confusion.